I decided to pick up Mr. Gasket thermostat for my van in preparation of a long trip. Looked at the package and was made in China. I placed it in a pot of water and brought it to a vigorous boil for several minutes and it barely opened an eighth inch. I made a close visual inspection. I'm disappointed with the quality of manufacture. Here's some pics to share.

Attachments

Here's what it looks like when you try to avoid it in the store.

Mr_Gasket_Tstat003.jpg (158.73 KiB) Viewed 1334 times

This one I tried to align the camera with the chrome section

Mr_Gasket_Tstat002.jpg (67.51 KiB) Viewed 1335 times

This one I tried to align the camera with the brass section.

Mr_Gasket_Tstat001.jpg (59.03 KiB) Viewed 1335 times

Roger---------------------------------------------------------------UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIEDDIMENSIONS ARE IN INCHES

i didn't learn my lesson. i've owned a ford van (different van than original post)for a few years that has always run hot. it could go for hours without hitting critical mass unless it was really scorching outside. i don't use it that much so i didn't address the problem for awhile. i replced the fan and clutch with a mark viii electric and that made no difference. finally i decided to replace the waterpump and thermostat. i got a gmb high flow and a mr gasket thermostat (i know, but i really like the balanced flow design) i pulled the old stuff out to discover it had an ordinary gmb waterpump (but the bearing was a little noisy) and the exact same mr gasket thermostat i had for replacement. so i replaced them. now the van really overheated. i figured it was the pump or the thermostat. i decided to replace the thermostat again. this time i got a ford motorcraft made in usa (the kind ford puts in their cars). it still pegged out the gauge. now what? it was still acting like a bad thermostat so I gutted the old thermostat and put it in for a restricter. for the first time since i owned it the van runs cool. the needle stays on the "n" on "normal". i'm not the kind of guy who likes running no thermostat espescially on a computer fuel injected car but i don't trust any brand anymore. but i definitely will never buy anything that says mr gasket on it.

Roger---------------------------------------------------------------UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIEDDIMENSIONS ARE IN INCHES